Episodes IV and V are the high-mark of Star Wars scoring, but Episode I is great, and Episode II has its moments. Episode III, on the other hand, is the only one I've never gotten around to buying on CD.

..not in a very long time. Most of his scores from the prequels was not the kind of music one had to listen to again and again, like the original trilogy scores.

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He is the best film composer of all time, there is no question in my mind of that. I liked a lot of the prequel music. In many ways the music was one of the only redeeming quality of the prequels! Imagine the how much worse the prequels would have been with some boring old sonic wallpaper type music.

I can understand the sentiment of some here that Williams did much better work with the original trilogy than with the prequel trilogy. He probably did. But you also have to look at the quality of the material he was working with. The creative canvas he was painting on, so to speak, was much more filled with over-the-top eye candy CGI effects than substantive content, in comparison to the original trilogy. Not to mention Lucas was in the director's chair, which he wasn't on V or VI, and who knows what sort of direction he gave to Williams.

I still think having Williams do the new film is a good choice. Even a mediocre outing from Williams is better than many film composers do on their best days. And having that solid, thematic connection back to the previous films is, IMHO, a good thing.

I do agree that do to Williams age there should also be another composer involved just in case and also such a person could to the spin off movies.

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I think there's already enough Williams Star Wars (and other scores) out there to form the basis of future soundtracks. There's a lot of music on Star Wars videogames that has the Williams feel and quote his themes. We don't have to worry about when Williams retires - a decent composer will still be able to follow in his footsteps well enough, he's done enough groundwork.

I think there's already enough Williams Star Wars (and other scores) out there to form the basis of future soundtracks. There's a lot of music on Star Wars videogames that has the Williams feel and quote his themes. We don't have to worry about when Williams retires - a decent composer will still be able to follow in his footsteps well enough, he's done enough groundwork.

It's still good to have the real thing for the new movie though...

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Agreed on all counts.

I don't think there's any reason that Williams needs to have an "understudy" working on the new film. First off, yes, he's 81, but he's in good health, still very active, and still has a thriving career. For all we know, he could be scoring movies for another 20 years.

Second, as you said, it's not as though other composers aren't familiar with either the existing Star Wars material or Williams' style. A decent composer could continue in that tradition if need be. They wouldn't have to be specially "prepped" for the job.

Heck, even one-off event music, like the Flag Parade from Phantom Menace was pretty good. The Droid March was good. And there were moments from ROTS, like the Order 66 sequence that were just downright emotional.

Yeah, the prequel music was really pretty good. AOTC suffered because Lucas chose to have almost the entire final act of the film use recycled TPM music (thank you, Ben Burtt). But The Arena shows just what Williams was capable of, given the opportunity.

The Anakin & Padmé Love Theme is magnificent, one of the finest themes of the whole saga. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: their wedding in AOTC leading into the end credits is hands down the best end scene of all six movies, followed by the award sequence at the end of the original film. That love theme, and the way the music fits everything perfectly, is one major reason why the scene is so great.